skin...

[Tat]

ok - this is going to sound odd... you know when you've been asleep or sitting on a wicker chair with a short skirt on or something and you get imprints on your skin? my friend says that it's called 'kettering' bit i think she's lying! is she? has it got a name? what is it?

[becks]

Well Kettering is not in the dictionary and the only definition brought up online is of a city near ohio. Think it's also a place in england isn't it?? So my guess would be that she isn't lying, just mistaken. Would love to know if there is a real name for it. The best one is when you're on holiday in a bikini and you have to go to the loo... what a nice impression (ahem!) that leaves...

[Tat]

i'm obsessed with it as i think it is so cool! i googled it and got the same as you!

[omblod]

I haven't got a copy so I can't be sure but might this word have come from "The Meaning of Liff" by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd? They use placenames as words for things that don't have words associated with them, e.g. Cromarty - the residue that builds up around the neck of ketchup bottles, Shoeburyness - the warm feeling left in a chair after someone has just got out of it.

[Quizmonster]

I wonder whether your friend misheard it for 'kettling'. In geology, a 'kettled' surface is one consisting of alternating ridges and hollows scoured out by glaciers. That might fit the wickerwork-skin concept.

Just an idea...I've certainly never seen or heard anyone use the word in this way. It may conceivably be just a local dialect expression. Where does she come from?

[MikeMikeMike]

Yes, it is from the meaning of liff. It's all the place names in Britain which we waste by them not meaning anything other than the place they inicate. (Whew... that's a really bad sentence... ah well). My favourite is 'Sutton and Cheam'. When you're wearing light coloured clothes, Sutton is the grimy stuff you find all over them after going out. If you're wearing dark clothe, you'll find yourself similarly covered in light coloured Cheam.

[Jamie Lewis]

How short is this skirt?

[Tat]

LMAO! very vey short... ;)

[Jamie Lewis]

Tell me more...

[Jamie Lewis]

... I take you to Kettering.

[Tat]

ha ha ha ha ha!